April One Monthly Goal

March flew by for me, did it for you as well?

I'm hoping to be more deliberate (and therefore more productive!) in April. However, I've already been thrown off-kilter and the month's only just begun! I was hoping to make good headway on my Venice quilt, and I still hope to, of course, but things come up. As is usual when you don't live under a rock, haha.

I have a dear friend I roomed with in college who is expecting her first baby in July! I'm so excited for her, and immediately began to think about making her a quilt. She currently lives in Seattle, and I expected to mail it to her in June or July. But! She texted just last week to tell me she is making a last minute trip to Utah in mid-April and her mother-in-law is throwing her a shower. I'd much prefer to give it to her in person, so my deadline got moved up by a few months and all the sudden the pressure was on! 

I rushed out to get background fabric--I had all the prints I needed--and set to work on the pattern I selected: a modified Red Cross quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival (my favorite book!). But, preparing is one thing.

Her shower is on April 21st and so my goal (with a very firm deadline!) is to finish the baby quilt for my friend. 

I've already spent an hour piecing it, so I shouldn't have too much trouble.

My other goals I hope to get to include the following.

• Make progress on my Venice quilt, specifically finish four of the sixteen blocks.
• Trace the pattern for Lisette 6411 and prepare the fabric. This is my least favorite part of garment sewing, and I think I could get a lot more done if I didn't procrastinate this odious task so much.
• Bind my triangle quilt. This one is actually pretty important too, because I plan to submit it to an art competition. I don't have it back just yet, but the quilter has finished it, and I'm anxious to see it. First, I must pick a binding fabric...
• Take my girls on a fun outing for spring break.
• Exercise three times a week. Odious but necessary. I am very unfit right now. 
• Plan a summer weekend away. I have a feeling we'll need it. I'm hoping to talk my mom into taking my girls for a few days, but I think she's worn out and that might not happen, so a family camping trip would also suffice.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal link up. :-)

Venice Quilt Underway!

So, my March goal for One Monthly Goal was to get my fabric completely cut out for my Venice quilt (using the Wallflower pattern). I was overwhelmed by being back from vacation and getting back into a routine, and I wasn't sure how much sewing I would get done or even what I needed to get done. So, I set myself a very reachable goal. And, as you can imagine, I blew it out of the water. Yes! So much better than falling short, though, so I'm glad I set a really simple goal.

I not only got everything cut out, I got all the block components sewn and pressed. Now I need to piece the blocks together and then just sash them together. This quilt has been faster than I expected, but just as enjoyable as the Shimmer quilt, which has a very, very similar block. I love Allison Harris's quilt patterns so very much! I'm also very excited for this quilt to come together.

This month, I also managed to get two shirts sewn for my girls. I made the Hopscotch shirt from Oliver and S, and the girls LOVE them. Hooray! I added two extra inches to my eight-year-old's, and I should have added another, and I should have added some length to my five-year-old's. Oh well, next time. And there will for sure be a next time, because this pattern is great. Not difficult, and a great, basic look.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

March One Monthly Goal

I've had a hard time coming up with a goal for this month. We just returned from Hawaii, so I'm still in vacation mode, coupled with jet lag, and a requirement to resume regular mom-duties. But, one of the first things I did was start cutting out my Venice quilt (I'm using Cluck Cluck Sew's Wallflowers quilt). This has been a long time in coming: I've had the fabrics picked out for over a year and just couldn't settle on a pattern. I finally decided right before we left, so I was anxious to get home and get started.

So, I guess my very obvious one monthly goal is to finish cutting out that quilt, even though I'd rather have a goal for actual stitching. I don't really like the cutting out part of quilting, so, while I haven't minded cutting out what I've started, I'm still not looking forward to finishing and making time to do that. I'd rather do the sewing! :-)

Unfortunately, cutting out all the background fabric is rather dull. I got through the colorful fabrics today, but now I've got hundreds of background pieces to cut. Hopefully, I'll get it all done. It is so satisfying to have a whole quilt project cut out!

I'm linking up to Elm Street's One Monthly Goal.

Reversible Bucket Hats

I made my twins matching reversible bucket hats for the beach! We went to Hawaii the last week in February, and I was worried they would really need sunhats, because they still don't have a ton of hair, and instead of beating my head against the wall trying to order some, I just made them instead.

I used Oliver and S's free pattern, and I think they are so cute! I took a risk and sewed them together, instead of sewing one first to make sure it worked, but luckily it totally did. They don't have straps, so I was a little nervous about how useful they'd even be. As it turned out, we had mostly overcast days, so they didn't need to keep them on (which they didn't...haha). Still cute, though!

February Bernina Block Party

Hooray, I finished the final big block for Bernina's Block Party! It's actually a great accomplishment: the instructions have been horrendous. Really bad. My biggest issue with them was that every single pattern had cutting instructions to cut triangles. To make half-square triangles. Seriously. And, not only that, but every block that needed HSTs needed at least 4-8 of any given pair, so why not use some quicker methods? Same for flying geese. Instead of using the square-on-the-rectangle method, or even better, the four-at-a-time method, she included instructions to cut triangles for every piece. Yuck.

Anyway, I redrafted most blocks to include making HSTs or Flying Geese the easier way. But I tire of doing my own math so I'm glad this project is almost done. I'm also excited to see my quilt put together! The pattern is really pretty.

This is the biggest block, at 24 inches, and it went together in a couple of hours, even with my need to redo the math. That's been one good thing about these blocks: none of them have been very time-consuming.

Oh, and I did get the backing for my Summer Sampler finished, too! I'm feeling a pinch on our budget right now, though, so it's not going out to a long-armer just yet. :-)

I'm linking up to Elm Street's One Monthly Goal.

One Monthly Goal: February

So, how is it February? Because, I'm pretty sure, Thanksgiving was like two weeks ago. Even still...February...

I'm checking in for the One Monthly Goal link up for February today.

Last month, I did okay with my goals. But, I didn't get everything done I'd hoped, although I pretty much hit my written-out (modest) sewing goals. So, this month, I'm trying to refine my personal goals better based on how thing went last month. That's what we're supposed to do with goals, right? :-)

So, here are my goals for February.

• Bernina Block Party block (I'm SO close to finishing! One last block big block coming this month, and then some spacers and setting, which I'm expecting they'll post in March!)
• Prep my cappuccino dress out of quilting cotton.
• Sew a couple of a reversible bucket hats for my babies.
• Pick a pattern for my Grand Canal fabric (finally! I've had a pile of fabric pulled in my sewing room for MONTHS. It's time to get things decided and cut).
• Continue to spend less time on my phone. I've been better, but not as good as I'd hoped, so it's staying on the list until it's a habit I'm happy with. :-)
• Do one organized activity with the girls every week. Sounds pathetic, but scheduling, and twins, make it overwhelming to plan outings or fun things with the girls. Do note that I don't mean fancy. I mean, a trip to the library or art museum. Or painting together after school one day. My bar is pretty low, ha ha. 

My ONE monthly goal is the block party block (see a number of the blocks together in the picture). To be honest, February is a short month and it's super busy for me (more on that later, I'm sure!). I want to lump the backing in because that's just a to do list item that just needs to get done. But then that's two goals, isn't it? So the block party block. That's the thing I'll be most disappointed in myself if I don't finish, and it's also doable (obviously, since I've kept up with the sew along thus far).

One Monthly Goal: January Recap

Checking in for One Monthly Goal link up. My ONE monthly goal was to finish my taupe shirt. I also hoped to get a set of clothes sewn up for my girls, and I wanted to sew up the Bernina Block of the Month.

Unfortunately, my one month goal was a fail. I did try: I took my shirt to our neighborhood sewing night, and I showed it to my friend who is much better at garment sewing than I am, and unfortunately, it wasn't salvageable. When I attached the facing, it stretched a bit, and that's what was causing it to flip up. I did mess up on one part, but unfortunately, that wasn't what caused the problem. So, it's hitting the bin. The fabric was old, it had been in my stash for a while, and it was good practice for me. I'm disappointed, of course, but I also recognize that I need practice.

I did finish the Bernina Block for January, and I love it. I struggle with the math on square in a squares or I would have refigured the center block so the main print wouldn't have seams, but otherwise, I love how it turned out. I'm excited to see this project finished. Not going to lie, I'm partially anticipating the end because the instructions are so frustrating.

While my taupe shirt didn't happen, I did get a shirt for me sewn sewn, twice. I did a trial run with some leftover black rayon that I bought for Halloween costumes, and it was perfect to practice with for my dress out of Cotton and Steel rayon. The first one didn't go so well, so I did it again. It turned out better. No pictures because I've been too lazy to take them.

And, I sewed my girls their mermaid dresses. They're not really mermaid dresses, but the sparkly mint fabric made me think the girls would feel like mermaids, so that's how I've thought about these dresses ever since! I sewed them using the Pippa Peplum pattern from See Kate Sew. No pictures, because, see above. :-)

So, this month was pretty okay! Not unproductive, even though I didn't accomplish my one monthly goal. I'll be back in a few days to check in with my February goals. :-) Happy sewing!